Hi,
there is a good reason. Every high precision arithmetic must store
the number of the digits somewhere (in a base you like).
Typical the digit number is not a high precision number itself.
The overflow comes from the fact that for
2^3^4^5
Mathematica needs more than the number of allowed digits.
May be, that a 64-Bit Mathematica will help (for Sun's).
BTW the HP is wrong because
In[]:=
x = 2.^3^4;
xx = x*x*x*x*x
Out[]=
8.263199609878108*^121
but we can get an other result with
In[]:=x^5
Out[]=8.263199609878108*^121
*and* it is a *bug* that none of the results above generate an
Overflow[] (as it should) but 2.^3^4^5 does.
Only the Overflow[] result is correct.
Regards
Jens
>
> Hmm, this is the first I've seen the 'General::"ovfl": "Overflow occurred in
> computation."' message. If I try a different calculation, say 8^8^8, I
> don't get an overflow, but instead Mathematica just happily tries to find
> the results (but I'm not holding my breath).
>
> > Is the HP wrong ?
> >
> >
>
> Well it would seem to be grouping the operators differently, but there may
> be a good reason for this?
>
> > L.DERUYCK
> > mailto:dr01202 at pophost.mediring.be
> >
>
> Michael